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ENHANCING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ABILITY BY USING PICTURE Suryani1
1 English Department, Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Abulyatama University
ABSTRACT
This study is aimed at finding out the effectiveness of picture in improving students’ speaking ability and exploring the students’ response toward the use of picture in teaching and learning speaking. The subject of this study was students of XI-IPA¹ and XI-IPA2 at SMAN 1 Unggul Baitussalam which consisted of 19 students and 24 students. This research was conducted in the form of an Experimental Study. The techniques in collecting data were tests, and questionnaire. The findings revealed that using picture was effective in enhancing students’ speaking ability. It can be seen from the result of t-score of pre-test experimental group and control group was 0.024 and t-score of post-test experimental group and control group was 4.37. Furthermore, the list of questionnaire given to the students indicated that the students’ responses, motivation and interest in learning speaking by using picture was positive. Thus, based on the findings, picture can help the second grade students of SMAN 1 Unggul Baitussalam in enhancing their speaking ability.
Keywords: picture, speaking ability
I. INTRODUCTION
In this modern era, people have to master more than one language, because language as a tool for communication takes an important role in our daily activities, and without language, we will be left behind. Communication in foreign language is a bridge to get information, knowledge and culture. Since English has become the most essential language in the world, almost all the people from many countries around the world use it to communicate.
In the international relationship, English speaking ability becomes an important skill in order to be able to participate in the wider world.
As a matter of fact, Indonesia as a member of ASEAN Economic Society (MEA) has realized that English as an international language has to be mastered by Indonesian.
Therefore, most of Indonesian want to improve their English, especially their speaking ability in order to take part in ASEAN community.
Speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols in a variety of contexts (Chaney, 1998, p. 13). Speaking is one of four basic language skills apart from listening, reading and writing that has to be mastered by students and it is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching. There are many ways and methods to improve English teaching and learning process. Besides the methods of teaching, there are also the use of media can help students in teaching and learning English.
Media can be used as a tool in teaching and learning. According to Latuheru (1988), media is a tool or technique used in teaching and learning activities in order to make process interaction between teacher and students communication can take place effectively. One of the media of teaching and learning is the use of picture. The use of picture according to
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Merseth (2010: 2), can represent words to be conveyed and pictures can convey the message exceeds of the words if used cleverly. The use of picture is to gain information and provide the students with practice in improving speaking skill.
In line with this, there are some issues in teaching oral communication skill as suggested by Brown (2001, p.189): (1) Conversation discourse. The goal and techniques for teaching conversation are extremely diverse, depending on the students, teachers and overall context of the class. (2) Teaching pronunciation. There have been some the role of pronounciation in a communication, interaction course of study. Some factors that affect pronounciation are native language, age, identity and language and motivation and concern for good pronounciation. (3) Accuracy and fluency. It is clear that accurancy (clear, accurate, grammatically and phonologically correct) and fluency (flowing, natural) are both important goals to pursue in Communicative Language Teaching. (4) Affective factors. The major obtacles faced by learners is affective factor or self-confidence in speaking English.
Teachers’ role is to provide the kind of motivation so that the learners feel free even to make mistake. (5) The interaction effect. Conversation are collaborative as participants in a process of negotiation of meaning.
To overcome the above issues, the writer assumes that picture can helps the students to develop learning in classroom and thinking about the environment so that the students can get new information from that learning. Picture is much more than an image, especially when teaching English. Pictures are essential when it comes in engaging students who are learning a new language at any level. They can be successful learning aids during lessons, and they can act as useful prompts to help students when they are practising speaking as suggested by Steven Darn (2009).
To improve teaching and learning activities, the teacher can uses picture in the teaching of English speaking. Students can tell a story by using pictures, or the teacher wants to really explore their imagination, or the students can create a story based on pictures. So, by using picture, it can be particularly interesting and productive if the teacher encouranges students to use specific tenses, vocabulary or functional language in their story. Pictures also involves sharing of knowledge between teacher and students (Albano, 2013).
Based on preliminary study conducted at the second grade of SMA Negeri 1 Unggul Baitussalam, it was found that most of the students still have difficulty in speaking. The students have lack of vocabulary mastery since they rarely speak in English. It is believed that the use of picture can help the students in improving their speaking ability. So, the researchers decide to conduct a research in this school by using picture in improving their speaking ability. Therefore, the title of this study is ENHANCING STUDENTS’
SPEAKING ABILITY BY USING PICTURE (An Experimental Study at Second Grade of SMAN 1 Unggul Baitussalam).
1. 1. The Problems of Study
In the light of the discussion above, the overall purpose of the purposed study is intended to explore the implementation and the effect of picture on the students’ speaking ability. Therefore, the researchers would like to raise the questions as follow:
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1. Does the implementation of picture can improve the second grade students of SMAN 1 Unggul Baitussalam in speaking ability?
2. What are the students’ response toward the use of picture in teaching and learning speaking?
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. A Brief Description of Speaking
Language learning focuses on developing the ability to communicate in a second language, with special emphasis on languages for which there are few or no written or recorded resources. Language learning is supported by a series of skill. Those are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Language is a system of arbitrary symbols for human being comunication (Knigh, 1992 :2). The aspect of speaking has important and significant role in language learning. Speaking is an activity of two or more people in sending and receiving information through oral communication. According to Harmer (1998:65) “Speaking is an integrated skill, the learner of the language need to know the grammar, pronunciation, comprehension and vocabulary in order to speak well or fluently.”
Speaking can be called as an oral communication where speaking is one of skills in language learning. This become one important subject that teacher should teach to the students. That is why the teachers have a big challenge to enable their students to master English well, especially speaking English in class or out of class.
Speaking ability is the students’ ability in expressing their ideas orally which is represented by the scores of speaking. Speaking is only an oral trail of abilities that devises from structure and vocabulary. Freeman (in Risnadedi, 2001: 56) states that speaking is the ability that is more complex and difficult than people assume. Because, learners seldom speak and practice in real-life communication situation. It also develops the ability to produce correct grammar, logically connected sentences that are appropriate to spesific contexts and pronunciation.
Speaking is the most important lesson to learn languages, especially English language.
According to Thornbury (2005 :1) Speaking is so much a part of daily life that we take it for granted. In addition to that he adds that, the average person produces tens of thousands of words a day, although some people produce even more than that (Thornbury, 2005 : 1).
Speaking that the people forget how to achieve this ability, people have to learn how to do it all over again in a foreign language.
Hornby (1995: 37) states speaking as “ The skill that the students will be assessed in real-life situations.” Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information (Brown, 1994 : 2 ; Burns & Joyce, 1997 : 2 ). So, teachers have a responsibility to prepare the students as much as possible to be able to speak in English in the real world and outside the classroom.
125 2.2. Teaching Speaking
According to hornby (1995 : 37) teaching means giving the instruction to a person, while speaking means to make use of words in ordinary voice. So, teaching speaking is giving instruction to a person in order to communicate.
Teaching speaking is the way for students to express their emotions, communication needs, interact to other person and influence the others. For this reason, in teaching speaking it is necessary to have a clear understanding of communication aspect that involved in the speech. Therefore, students must practice to speak English as often as possible so that they are able to speak English fluently and accurately. Despite of its importance, teaching speaking has been under valued and English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memory of dialogues.
The goal of teaching speaking should improve students’ communicative skills, because, only in that way students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communication circumstance. We often find students’
difficulties in learning how to speak up in classroom. It can help the teacher to conduct an activity which helps students to improve in speaking skill.
The teacher agrees that students learn to speak with involving interaction with each other. Language teaching is based on real-life situations that require communication. It makes the students will have the opportunity to communicate with each other in the target language. The teacher should create a classroom environment where students have real-life communication, authentic activity and meaningful tasks. This can occur when students collaborate in group to achieve a goal or to complete task. Moreover, Kayi (2006 : 11) provides suggestions for English language teachers when teaching oral language, they are : 1. Provide maximum oppurtunity to students to speak the target language by provide rich
environmet that contains collaborative work, authentic material and shared knowledge.
2. Try to involve each students in every speaking activity; for this aim, practice different way of student participation.
3. Reduce teacher speaking time in class while increasing student speaking time.
4. Indicate positive signs when commenting on a student’s response.
5. Involve speaking activity not only in class but also out of class ; contact parents or other people who can help.
6. Circulate around classroom to ensure that students are on the see whether they need help while they work in group pairs.
7. Diagnose problems faced by students who have difficulty in expressing themselves in target language and provide more opportunity to practice the spoken language.
Not only the above mentioned suggestions will be useful in the teaching of speaking, but also the use of media helps the teacher improves the students’ speaking ability. Media such as picture can be used to stimulate and to improve skill in speaking. This activity makes students more active in learning process and makes their learning more meaningful and fun for them. The description about the use of picture in teaching of speaking will be explained in the next section.
126 2.3. The Aspects of Speaking
Generally, there are five components of speaking skill concerned with grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, fluency and comprhension (Syakur, 1997, p.3). Grammar is the most important role of language aspect to be taught at schools. Grammar can serve information and guidances as a systematically study. It is the rules for forming the words being a good sentence. Costello (1999) as quoted by Afrianti (2006, p.9) says that sentence as formed words which are arranged together into a grammatically unit that is syntatically independent and has subject that is expressed or understood to develop usage of the sentence and how to use the words in the sentence correctly. Students should master this language aspect appropriately to obtain successful with other. The students need arrange a correct sentence in conversation. It is surrported by explanation suggested by Harmer (194, p.77) that student’s ability to manipulate structure and to distinguish appropriate grammatical form in appropriate ones. The utility of grammar is also to learn the correct way to gain Moreover, one cannot communicative effectively or express their ideas both in oral and written form if they do not have sufficient vocabulary. Therefore, vocabulary means the appropriate diction which is used in communication.
Vocabulary is kind of words, which has meaning when it is used as in listening, speaking, reading and writing. In other word, vocabulary is a total number of words that make up a language. Langan (1997, p.451) says a good vocabulary is a vital part of effective communication. A common of word make you a better speaker, listener, reader and writer.
Studies have shown that students with strong vocabulary and students who word to improve a limited a vocabulary are more successful at school. Besides, Al-Kufaisi (1998, p.42) also agrees that vocabulary is a vehicle for thought, where people use vocabulary to express his thoughts or opinion. People collect words and arrage those words to form a sentence that make up the communication. He also suggests that vocabulary aim at expanding and enriches the learners’ knowledge of words to improve their communication between a speaker and a listener.
Pronunciation is the way of students to produce clearer language when they speak. It deals with the phonological process that refers to the component of a grammar make up of the elements and principles that determine how sounds vary and pattern in a language.
Similarly to this point, Nunan (2005, p.112) states that pronunciation is the sounds we make while speaking. It indicates that pronunciation is the way in which a language or a particular word or sound is pronounced.
Fluency can be defined as the ability to speak fluently and accurately (Syakur, 1997, p.6). Fluency in speaking is the aim of many language learners. Signs of fuency include a reasonably fast speed of speaking and only a small number of pauses and “ums” or “ers”.
This signs indicate that the speaker does not have to spend a lot of time searching for the language items needed to express the message (Brown, 1994, p.4).
Comprehension is used to measure students’ ability in English and the students must understand the pronunciation correctly. The students must all comprehend concerned with learning process even without using picture, charts and other aids. According to Sudarjono (2011 : 44) Comprehension is the result of learning, the students can explains the sentence
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structure itself on what they read or heard, gave another example of what has been described the teacher or the use of implementation of other cases.
Based on all the factor above, we can summarize that the factors very important in learning speaking skill, because if the students have lack vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation the students will be difficult in studying English. One factor should be supported by the others.
2.4. The use of Picture in the Teaching of Speaking
In teaching speaking, picture can be used a guide to help the students to improve their skill in speaking. Andrew wright (1989) states that picture is very important in helping students to retell experiences or understanding something since they can represent place, object, people and so on. The use of picture also can to create classroom speaking activities the will develop communicative competence and performance too. Picture is one of the techniques used in teaching speaking can improve students’ speaking ability. It means using picture in teaching speaking will be effective for students.
Webter’s New World College Dictionary, defines picture as “Anything closely resembling or strikingly typifying something else; perfect likeness or an image of an object, person, scene produced on a flat surface.” Raimes (1983: 45) suggests that pictures are able to provide a shared experience in the classroom, variety of task, and a focus of interest of students. He also adds that pictures provide a shared experienced for students in the class, a common based that leads to a variety of language activities. Therefore, pictures as one of media in teaching speaking are very interesting to be used in developing the students’ ability in speaking English.
Almost all of people believe that the picture in teaching speaking has a important value in a communication. Pictures are easier to use without any printed text on them. If pictures do include text, the text should be in English such as the picture of two people having a conversation. This picture can be given per pair or one picture for all students. Pictures are a good source of material for practicing speaking, listening, writing, vocabulary and grammar.
Pictures are illustrations that are cut from a magazine, newspapers or other sources. In addition, drawings, collages, maps or other illustrations can be used for certain activities can be valuable resources in picture (Raimes, 1983). Picture provides a shared experience for students in the class, a common base that leads to a variety of language activities.
Calloway & Harris (1974 : 620 ) state that “One conception of mental picture is psychologically based, where in picture viewing and reported mental visualizations correspond to increased right hemisphere activity in the brain, while reading and verbal behavior correspond to higher activation of the left hemisphere.”
Furthermore, picture is useful because picture can stimulate the students’ competence in learning language. It can increase students’ attention in learning the meaning of the word.
It can make lesson class more realistic and interesting. Picture will not make the students bored even if it used for a long time. Raimes (1983: 45) suggests that pictures are able to provide a shared experience in the classroom, a variety task and focus on interest of students.
Picture is one of the visual that can be used in teaching speaking. By using a picture, the attention of students will be more focused, so picture can create their inspiration, their
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wish to know the content of the message of that picture and they can explain it in front class.
Pictures can trigger the students’ creativity through various language. In addition, picture has some powers; picture are able to clarify a problem. It means that by seeing the clear pictures, the students will understand more about the topic being taught. Harmer (2007 : 330) states that picture can provide stimulation for writing habit activities. It means that picture can help the students think easier and develop their ideas when they see the picture. By using picture, the students will be easy to learn. It also can motivate the students in learning process.
According to Brown, et. Al (2009) picture may improve the studens’ visual literacy. It can help them to comprehend various abstractions. Pictures are effective to be used in teaching foreign language. The effectiveness of the picture as visual aids in teaching foreign language is true because picture can improve skill in speaking.
2.5. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Picture
Using picture in teaching gives many advantages not only for students but also for teachers. This is because picture presents to real situation on teaching activities. In this case, Estenova (1980 : 122) states that “ Picture increases students’ motivation and provides useful practice material.
Following are some opinion concerning with the advantages of using pictures.
According to Latuheru (1988), pictures have several functions in the teaching and learning process:
1. Picture can translate abstract ideas into more realistic forms.
2. Picture are easily obtained from shcoolbooks, newspaper and megazines.
3. Picture are usable in different kinds of academic levels.
4. Picture can save the teachers’ time and energy.
Moreover, according to Wright (1989 : 17), the functions of picture in teaching speaking are as follows.
1. Picture can motivate the students and the picture can make speaking English fun.
2. Picture can be described as an objective way.
3. Picture can stimulate and provide information in conversation, discussion and story telling.
4. Picture makes students more active in learning process.
As mentioned before, pictures have a great number of advantages in teaching learning picture. On the other hand, it also has some disadvantages as the following:
1. The majority of picture in book, magzine, newspaper are too small to be affectively used in front of the class. Consequently the pictures can not be seen well by the students.
2. Picture can not be used by a teacher to show a process of some activities in explanating a lesson. Picture only give concept without the real action.
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3. Students get different ideas after looking picture by using their own ideas, to make it clear, the teacher should give them some intruction and make them do not misunderstanding about the picture.
4. Students pay attention on the picture more than on learned material.
5. It takes time and costs much to provide attractives picture.
6. Small and unclear picture may arouse problems in teaching and learning process since the students may not understand about the picture.
III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The aims of this research are to find out the use of picture in improving students’
speaking ability and to find out the students’ response toward the use of picture in teaching and learning speaking. Hence, the experimental research was used in this study. According to Fraenkel et al (2012) experimental research should contain at least one independent variable which manipulated, other relevant variables are controlled, and the effect on one or more dependent variables is observed. Here, the dependent variable is teaching speaking. Whereas, the independent variable is by using picture.
The sample of this research was two classes of the second grade. The experimental group was class XI-IPA¹ which consisted of 19 students. On the other hand, the control group was class XI-IPA2 that consisted of 24 students. In this case, the experimental received the treatment in terms of teaching speaking by using picture, whereas the control group was taught speaking without the use of picture.
To collect the research data, the researcher used tests and questionnaire. The test is used to measure the students’ speaking ability in teaching speaking by using picture. According to Arikunto (2006:150) “Test is one of the techniques in collecting the data and used to measure the students’ performance, intelligence, and knowledge”. For this research, the researcher used pre-test and post-test.
Pre-test was given at the first meeting to the students. It was used to know the students’
ability in speaking English. The teacher asked the students to speak in front of the class about their favorite idols in 2 minutes per students without picture. From these activities, the researcher knew about their basic speaking skill.
Post-test was given at the last meeting. It was used to test how far the effectiveness of picture in teaching speaking. The students were asked to speak for about 2 minutes about their picture. Their speaking test was recorded for which later used for analysis.
In addition, questionnaire was given to the students in order to get information about the response toward the use of picture in teaching speaking, their motivation and interest in learning speaking by using picture. The questionnaire was in close-ended form which consisted of 10 items. This was adopted by Likert Scale methodologists, consists of five items, they were Strongly Agree(SA), Agree(A), Undecided(U), Disagree(D), and Strongly Disagree(SD). These points value might be assigned from positive (5) to negative (1) responses.
In analyzing the data, the researcher used quantitative analysis. The quantitative analysis was used to analyze the data for answering the research question. The data analysis was conducted by organizing the data gathered from pre-test and post-test. The students
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speaking test was recorded then analysed by using five criterias namely vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, comprehension and fluency. Each criteria consisted of five rating scales from the lowest (1) to he highest (4) which was adopted from Wipft (1982).
3.2. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
In this research, the use of picture in the second grade of SMAN 1 Unggul Baitussalam can improve students’ speaking ability. Based on calculated data, it found that the mean score of pre-test in the experimental group was 47.26, whereas the mean score of post-test was 87.78. Then, the result of mean score in the control group was 47.20 of pre-test and the result of mean score was 76.79 for post-test.
Futhermore, the hypothesis of this research is that the use of picture in teaching speaking improves the second grade students of SMAN 1 Unggul Baitussalam, Klieng Cot Aron, Aceh Besar in speaking ability. Based on the data analysis, it is proved that t-score was higher than t-table which means that the hypothesis of this study is acccepted. So it can be stated that there was a difference between the experimental group and the control group in the students’ speaking ability.
In terms of speaking aspects, fluency had improved than before the application of picture in teaching speaking. Before the application of picture, the students’ fluency aspect is fragmentary, halting and so far from normal. Whereas, after the implementation of picture in teaching learning speaking, the students became more fluent in speaking. The students’
fluency aspect is lenght of utterance are somewhat affected by language difficulties and limitations but pauses are few and only slightly affected by language problems. The majority of students improved their imagination about their topic during speaking ability, because picture provided cues about the topic under discussion.
Then, the students’ response toward the use of picture in teaching and learning speaking was positive. The students responded that picture could improve their speaking ability because they were more communicative in speaking. The students also responded that their motivation were higher. Additionally, the students understood the basic concepts and ideas in learning properly.
It can be concluded that, the students’ response toward using picture in teaching and learning speaking can increase the students’ speaking ability and able to make the students more active and communicative.
V. CONCLUSIONS
Based on the findings and discussion, some conclusions can be drawn from this research, they are:
1. The use of picture can improve the students speaking ability. It was proved by the result of the tests. The mean score of pre-test of control group was 47,20 and the mean score of pre-test of experimental group was 47,26. Whereas the mean score of post-test of control group was 76,79 and the mean score of post-test of experimental group was 87,78.
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2. The use of picture applied in experimental class could be an effective technique in teaching and learning speaking. The result of t-score indicated that there was a difference between the score of pre-test and post-tes of experimental and control group.
The t-score pre-test of experimental group and control group was 0,024 and t-score post-test of experimental group and control group was 4,37.
3. The result of questionnaire shows that most of the students had a positive response toward the use of picture in the teaching of speaking. The use of picture in teaching speaking made the students more enjoyable, more active and communicative during learning speaking. Moreover, the students could understood the basic concepts and ideas in learning properly.
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